“from Old English Cristes maesse, ‘Christ’s
mass’), Christian festival celebrated on December 25, commemorating the birth
of Jesus Christ. It is also a popular secular holiday. According to a Roman
almanac, the Christian festival of Christmas was celebrated in Rome by AD 336.
In the eastern part of the Roman Empire, however, a festival on January 6
commemorated the manifestation of God in both the birth and the baptism of
Jesus, except in Jerusalem, where only the birth was celebrated. During the 4th
century the celebration of Christ’s birth on December 25 was gradually adopted
by most Eastern churches. In Jerusalem, opposition to Christmas lasted longer,
but it was subsequently accepted. In the Armenian Church, a Christmas on December
25 was never accepted; Christ’s birth is celebrated on January 6. After
Christmas was established in the East, the baptism of Jesus was celebrated on
Epiphany, January 6. In the West, however, Epiphany was the day on which the
visit of the Magi to the infant Jesus was celebrated. The reason why
Christmas came to be celebrated on December 25 remains uncertain, but most
probably the reason is that early Christians wished the date to coincide
with the pagan Roman festival marking the ‘birthday of the unconquered sun’
(natalis solis invicti); this festival celebrated the winter solstice, when
the days again begin to lengthen and the sun begins to climb higher in the sky.
The traditional customs connected with
Christmas have accordingly developed from several sources as a result of the
coincidence of the celebration of the birth of Christ with the pagan
agricultural and solar observances at midwinter. In the Roman world the
Saturnalia (December 17) was a time of merrymaking and exchange of gifts. December
25 was also regarded as the birth date of the Iranian mystery god Mithra, the
Sun of Righteousness. On the Roman New Year (January 1), houses were
decorated with greenery and lights, and gifts were given to children and the
poor. To these observances were added the German and Celtic Yule rites when the
Teutonic tribes penetrated into Gaul, Britain, and central Europe. Food and
good fellowship, the Yule log and Yule cakes, greenery and fir trees, and gifts
and greetings all commemorated different aspects of this festive season. Fires
and lights, symbols of warmth and lasting life, have always been associated
with the winter festival, both pagan and Christian. Since the European Middle
Ages, evergreens, as symbols of survival, have been associated with Christmas.
Christmas is traditionally regarded as the festival of the family and of
children, under the name of whose patron, Saint Nicholas, or Santa Claus,
presents are exchanged in many countries”.

“The word Christmas is derived from the Old
English Cristes maesse, ‘Christ’s Mass.’ There is no certain tradition of the date of Christ’s birth. Christian
chronographers of the 3rd century believed that the creation of the world took
place at the spring equinox, then reckoned as March 25; hence the new creation
in the incarnation (i.e., the conception) and death of Christ must therefore
have occurred on the same day, with his birth following nine months later at
the winter solstice, December 25. The oldest extant notice of a feast of
Christ’s Nativity occurs in a Roman almanac (the Chronographer of 354, or Philocalian
Calendar), which indicates that the festival was observed by the church in Rome
by the year 336. Many have posited the theory that the feast of Christ’s
Nativity, the birthday of ‘the sun of righteousness’ (Malachi 4:2), was
instituted in Rome, or possibly North Africa, as a Christian rival to the pagan
festival of the Unconquered Sun at the winter solstice. This syncretistic
cult that leaned toward monotheism had been given official recognition by the
emperor Aurelian in 274. It was popular in the armies of the Illyrian (Balkan)
emperors of the late 3rd century, including Constantine’s father. Constantine
himself was an adherent before his conversion to Christianity in 312. There is,
however, no evidence of any intervention by him to promote the Christian
festival. The exact circumstances of
the beginning of Christmas Day remain obscure. From Rome the feast
spread to other churches of the West and East, the last to adopt it being the
Church of Jerusalem in the time of Bishop Juvenal (reigned 424-458).
Coordinated with Epiphany, a feast of Eastern origin commemorating the
manifestation of Christ to the world, the celebration of the incarnation of
Christ as Redeemer and Light of the world was favoured by the intense concern
of the church of the 4th and 5th centuries in formulating creeds and dogmatic
definitions relating to Christ’s divine and human natures. Christmas is the
most popular of all festivals among Christians and many non-Christians alike,
and its observance combines many strands of tradition. From the ancient Roman
pagan festivals of Saturnalia (December 17) and New Year’s come the merrymaking
and exchange of presents. Old Germanic midwinter customs have contributed the
lighting of the Yule log and decorations with evergreens. The Christmas tree
comes from medieval German mystery plays centred in representations of the Tree
of Paradise (Genesis 2:9). Francis of Assisi popularized the Christmas crib, or
crèche, in his celebration at Greccio, Italy, in 1223. Another popular medieval
feast was that of St. Nicholas of Myra (c. 340) on December 6, when the saint
was believed to visit children with admonitions and gifts, in preparation for
the gift of the Christ child at Christmas. Through the Dutch the tradition of
St. Nicholas (Sinterklaas, hence ‘Santa Claus’) was brought to America in their
colony of New Amsterdam, now New York. The sending of greeting cards at
Christmas began in Britain in the 1840s and was introduced to the United States
in the 1870s”.

“The word Christmas is derived from the Old
English Cristes maesse, ‘Christ’s Mass.’ There is no certain tradition of the
date of Christ’s birth. Christian chronographers of the 3rd century believed
that the creation of the world took place at the spring equinox, then reckoned
as March 25; hence the new creation in the incarnation (i.e., the conception)
and death of Christ must therefore have occurred on the same day, with his
birth following nine months later at the winter solstice, December 25. The
oldest extant notice of a feast of Christ’s Nativity occurs in a Roman almanac
(the Chronographer of 354, or Philocalian Calendar), which indicates that the
festival was observed by the church in Rome by the year 336. Many have
posited the theory that the feast of Christ’s Nativity, the birthday of ‘the
sun of righteousness’ (Malachi 4:2), was instituted in Rome, or possibly North
Africa, as a Christian rival to the pagan festival of the Unconquered Sun at
the winter solstice. This syncretistic cult that leaned toward monotheism
had been given official recognition by the emperor Aurelian in 274. It was
popular in the armies of the Illyrian (Balkan) emperors of the late 3rd
century, including Constantine’s father. Constantine himself was an adherent
before his conversion to Christianity in 312. There is, however, no evidence of
any intervention by him to promote the Christian festival. The exact
circumstances of the beginning of Christmas Day remain obscure. From Rome the
feast spread to other churches of the West and East, the last to adopt it being
the Church of Jerusalem in the time of Bishop Juvenal (reigned 424-458).
Coordinated with Epiphany, a feast of Eastern origin commemorating the
manifestation of Christ to the world, the celebration of the incarnation of
Christ as Redeemer and Light of the world was favoured by the intense concern
of the church of the 4th and 5th centuries in formulating creeds and dogmatic
definitions relating to Christ’s divine and human natures. Christmas is the
most popular of all festivals among Christians and many non-Christians alike,
and its observance combines many strands of tradition. From the ancient Roman
pagan festivals of Saturnalia (December 17) and New Year’s come the merrymaking
and exchange of presents. Old Germanic midwinter customs have contributed the
lighting of the Yule log and decorations with evergreens. The Christmas tree
comes from medieval German mystery plays centred in representations of the Tree
of Paradise (Genesis 2:9). Francis of Assisi popularized the Christmas crib, or
crèche, in his celebration at Greccio, Italy, in 1223. Another popular medieval
feast was that of St. Nicholas of Myra (c. 340) on December 6, when the saint
was believed to visit children with admonitions and gifts, in preparation for
the gift of the Christ child at Christmas. Through the Dutch the tradition of
St. Nicholas (Sinterklaas, hence ‘Santa Claus’) was brought to America in their
colony of New Amsterdam, now New York. The sending of greeting cards at
Christmas began in Britain in the 1840s and was introduced to the United States
in the 1870s”.

“In
the Scriptures, no one is recorded to have kept a feast or held a great banquet
on his birthday. It is only sinners (like Pharaoh and Herold) who make great
rejoicings over the day in which they were born into the world.”